These themes will vary! It could be based off of some book mail I just received, pop culture, something personal to me, a headline from the news, a trend I noticed when I was buying books for my library system, etc. I hope you stick around to see all the themes and book recs I come up with!
Today’s Theme: Life’s a Beach!
I heard about this book at TLA earlier this year. I heard the author talk and when she said it was based on a Black beach that she knew of, called Bruce’s Beach and it was set in 1929. And that was all it took. I was so intrigued. If you know me, you know that I’m from a Beach town, and the beach where I’m from was considered a Black beach as well. So obviously this is what made me want to read this book immediately. In this one, the main character’s family owns a slice of the beach and a snacks and rentals stand. Blue protects that stretch of beach as best she can. It served as the part of the beach where Black people could go and enjoy the shore line. And suddenly, it could all be yanked away by the current property owners and anyone that might catch Blue and her friend moving the body of a white debutante that had washed up on their shore. [This is a MG book and is out now!]
This one is a little different. It’s set in the modern day and it doesn’t specifically say it’s a Black beach, but it seems to be implied. When I went to her talk at Kindred Stories, Kristina Forest mentioned that she saw this as a Black beach town. Where it was a Black beach during segregation, but over time it just evolved into a Black beach town. I loved that. It was a lot like where I’m from. Some of the same families are still in the area, and street where the strip of Black beach was, is now ironically MLK. (IYKYK) But I loved seeing the way this beach had evolved and I loved seeing how they made it their own. Every family had been there a long time and had a long standing reputation. From the boutique to the funnel cake stand. I know they’re fictional, but I loved seeing this community thrive. [This is Adult and is out now!]
Well, there you go! Here I’m just going to talk about why I grouped these two books together. I hope you enjoyed a look at this small part of the books. For a full synopsis of the book or to add it to your TBR, click the picture and it will take you to their Storygraph. The link on the caption will take you to it’s Goodreads.
More on Black Beaches!
If you want to read more books based on Black Beaches, here’s some more
So fun fact, like I said, I’m from a beach town as well. And where I’m from, it was very close to a spot that was considered a Black beach as well. I actually went down to Galveston for Juneteenth and I went to the very place where the Beach used to be. Of course there’s a lot different, like the businesses are different. the Seawall is a thing now, etc. It just seemed pretty cool to ride that stretch of beach and learn so much about it. I guess it might have helped to see how close to the beach this is, but there is a huge hotel there now. But if you turn to the left from where I was in my mom’s car, you’re looking right at the water.
Some things I learned while looking up Galveston’s Black beaches: There was more than one. They didn’t have anyone to really watch them, so two men became the first Black lifeguards to do just that. They now have plaques dedicated to them. The different beaches were stops in the Negro Motorist Green Book, the beach I’m talking about was called “Brown Beach” and the buildings along that one block stretch of beach were all Black owned, by the Gus Allen family, and they’re still in the area today. This is what it looks like today! (Sorry this video is TERRIBLE lol) What was once a restaurant and entertainment club, it is now a corner store and hotel and more. At the end if you look closely at the street sign you can see that the street is now named Gus Allen Dr. (And the cross street is MLK)
I know this sounds like a bunch of rambly nonsense, but it was so interesting seeing how this all came together. My little Black beach community is filled with history and it is so amazing to see!
Have you heard of any Black beaches before? Will you pick up any of these? Let me know in the comments!